 |
The Jack Five must have been big Berry fans as well, they even mention him and Maybellene in their hymn to Berlin on Paletten Records. Although they pretend to be on holiday, they probably came from the divided city and were payed by the tourist office during an unsuccessful attempt to establish the name Swinging Berlin (as opposed to Swinging London). Lord Nelson was Berlin’s rocker of the first hour Didi Zill, wh fronted the ABC Boys and The Batmen. Both bands’ finest moments can be revisited on Vol.9. In 68 Didi joined the navy and promotion by self-selection made him an immediate admiral. “Station Girl” is the stand out-track from his LP on Metronome and it’s obviously all about the same Berlin phenomenon that Nina Hagen described ten years later in “Am Bahnhof Zoo Im Damenklo”. The Bats, another of the early Hamburg bands, came together in 61. They went through the usual Star Club routine, but recorded mainly for Polydor after a quarrel with the Club’s owner Weißleder. While most of their records don’t show the group’s true potential, their 7” on WAM, “Got A Girl”, was a German garage classic (see Vol.2). Unlike other 2nd division veterans, they stayed active and still gigged in the 90’s. In 81 they issued an LP of unreleased late 60’s/early 70’s recordings on their own Summer |
 |